Can we at least agree on this?

The purpose of this column is to start a dialogue among communicators. Usually, we try to do that by posing provocative points of view—ours and others’—and hoping to spark a conversation.

Occasionally, though, it seems to us we should use “It Seems to Us” to come to agreement with our readers on a few things that don’t seem controversial, but rather seem obvious to us, but not, apparently, to all of Us.

We have gathered a few of those items, both general and specific, for the column this week. Let us begin:

Stock photography sucks. What would happen if we gathered all 13,500 members of the International Associa-tion of Business Communicators in a small college basketball arena and asked for a show of hands, “How many of you agree that stock photography sucks?” Here’s what would happen: 13,500 hands would shoot up and everyone would chuckle in unison.

And yet, on the home page of IABC’s recently redesigned Web site, we have this typically meaningless piece of stock photography that communicates absolutely nothing.